Apostles' Creed Hymn Sing

Here is the preliminary Draft of my Apostles' Creed Hymn Sing, enjoy!

In the Lutheran Church, there are few statements that hold as much weight as the Apostles' Creed. Martin Luther wrote that The Apostles' Creed "sets forth all that we must expect and receive from God; in short, it teaches us to know him perfectly." [Martin Luther, "Large Catechism," ed. Robert Kolb and Timothy Wengert]. It is rumored that Saint Augustine once said that the one who sings, prays twice; then to sing the creed is to proclaim it and pray it—twice. I propose to craft a hymn sing centered around the text of the Apostles' Creed. The goal of this Hymn Sing is to illuminate the creed in a way that a sermon alone could not.

The format of said Hymn Sing would be to read a segment of each article of the Creed, then sing it. The proposed format is such:

Opening Hymn Come Join the Dance of Trinity ELW 412

I believe in God, the Father almighty, creator of heaven and earth,

Praise to the Lord arr.Distler

(Chantry 264)

I believe in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord. He was conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of the Virgin Mary.

Of the Father’s Love Begotten ELW 295

Verse 1, Solo; 2-3, choir; 4-5, All

I believe He suffered under Pontius Pilate.

Ah, Holy Jesus arr. J. Ferguson

AFB Choirbook

I believe He descended to the dead. On the third day he rose again.

Out of the Depths arr. Schutz

Luther C-114

I believe He ascended into heaven, and is seated at the right hand of the Father. He will come again to judge the living and the dead.

Ride on King Jesus arr. Hogan

St. Olaf C-1984

OR

Crown Him with Many Crowns ELW 855

I believe in the Holy Spirit,

Come, Holy Ghost, G. P. Palestrina

Our Souls Inspire The Parish Choirbook

Luther B-4 (p.62)

I believe in the holy catholic church, and in the communion of saint

For All the Saints ELW 422

Verses 1-4 Ferguson’s Setting

(On Order)

I believe in the forgiveness of sins,

Wondrous Love arr. P Christiansen

AFB Choir Book

I believe in the resurrection of the body and the life everlasting.

Panis Angelicus E. Barnum

Photcopied Manuscript

Amen.

Hallelujah, Amen (Judas Maccabeus) Handel

CLC Library

Sending Hymn We All Believe in One True God ELW 411

Verse 1, Choir The Parish Choirbook

Luther B-4 (p.62)

I also propose that a Psalm be sung or read in between the second and third articles with prayers of intercession. Exegetical homilies will occur before each petition and may include the reading of Martin Luther's explanation of the article.

It is imperative that a Confessing Christian learn the Apostles' Creed, but it is more important that each Christian understand the creed in light of other material. Without the another point of view, faith becomes stagnant.

Justice and Peacemaking: A Hymn Festival

I was going through my posts and realized that this was not posted, just saved as a draft.  I apologize, I originally wrote it late on January 11, 2008.  Enjoy!

Tonight, I went to a Hymn Festival at Mt. Olive Lutheran Church in Minneapolis. David Cherwien, of Mt. Olive was the Organist (and presumably the organizer) and Marva Dawn presided over the reflections. They had help from the National Lutheran Choir (NLC) (see Cherwien's link).

The service was spectacular, Cherwien (my former composition professor) did an outstanding job of introducing the hymns and, for the most part, playing appropriate accompaniments to the congregation's singing. However, Cherwien is long-winded at many places where brevity would have been sufficient. The person with whom I went to this hymn festival said to me before a hymn started, "Is this intro going to be 5 minutes or 10 minutes?" I didn't have the heart to tell her that the organ was the point, but a little more variety could have been nice.

The program was well planned and had a great variety of hymn styles and stanza selections. I could have used more harmony singing, but can understand why one my not have had as much in this program. Allowing harmony takes away from some of the improvising one can do on the organ. Cherwien is a great improviser.

I won't recapitulate the program to you, but I will show you some of my favorite highlights. The NLC sang beautifully on their Rachmaninoff pieces, as well as the others, but the Rach were great. My favorite was the Hebrew piece, since I am now a student of Hebrew.

That was all I wrote, I don't remember where I was going, but I wanted you all to have that information.  Peace

Hebrew

So, I'm taking Biblical Hebrew this J-term. Now, you can read a lot about the language by following that link, but I'm going to tell you everything you need to know right now. (That is, unless you actually need to know Hebrew).

Hebrew is a language without vowels, so to speak, so people had to invent them in order for it to be read by people like me. That is, idiots. So, these "points" were added, but it's still confusing.So, in order to read pointed Hebrew, one has to memorize the little dots. For example, the first vowel on the list, a patach, looks like an underscore _ under the bet, but it is really a pointed vowel. Full-blown Hebrew has no _'s in it and one needs to be smart enough to know which is which. So make matters worse, look at the last vowel, a kamatz, this is a T under the bet. It makes the same sound, or similar enough that I'm not supposed to learn the difference. Oi! I guess I'll just learn Hebrew and be done with it.

By the way, it is a fun language to learn. I do recommend it.

Introduction

This is to serve as a more academic relation to my other blog. I have a tremendous fear of "academic" writing, so I will write her to get the nerves out. I do welcome comments, both on quality and on the topic, but please be nice--there is a real person behind this blog.

Leading

There are a few things I've learned about leadership while watching people at Seminary. One of the biggest things is that sometimes leading means not being in control. And sometimes the best thing for a group is to relinquish that control and not force it.

One example of such control is during the liturgy, especially during the praying of the Lord's Prayer. Most everyone in Seminary has to "lead" the prayer, which means that no one is praying. Also, it adds to the confusion of who to follow. If everyone has a different idea of which tempo to take the prayer and everyone is leading, no one will be praying together, which is, of course, the point. If none will subordinate and be part of the congregation, then no community will happen. Community is one of the reasons for liturgy.

Part of leading the liturgy, at that point, is to allow the community be that community. When the Psalms are being sung or read it is the same situation. If every person tries to chant at a different rate, then the Psalms are pointless. We are only a community when we lose control and let these things happen.

However, the other side is that there needs to be someone to start things. If it was time for the Lord's Prayer and there was no appointed leader to start the prayer, the congregation would be lost and not pray then either. Likewise, if the organist allowed the congregation to simply sing how they wanted to, the congregation may not be able to sing many of the hymns accurately. This is particularly a problem since the organist must be sensitive to what the congregation needs from them. Sometimes they need to follow the congregation's tempo, sometimes they need to follow the organist's.

I guess this is part of the tricks that musicians and other leaders in the church or other groups need to realize and be sensitive. The reason I brought it up was that the "congregation" at Seminary has yet to realize that they need to be a community in order to be a congregation, without the quotes.